I know what you're talking about. Once in MMA class, we were doing a drill on protecting ourselves/escaping from ground & pound with the other guy in our guard. The guy I was paired up with? He wasn't pulling his punches anywhere near as much as I would have liked. I know that you got to train alive and ****, but I was(still am tbh) new to being punched while on the ground, so most of his punches were landing. For some reason he didn't see this as a reason to take it easy on me. He didn't keep doing it after that one drill though, so I'm not sure what it was. Maybe he was annoyed that he was paired up with a fat n00b, iunno.

Did you ask him to take it easier? Last time I was getting bruised a bit much in sparring, I asked my partner to slow it down a bit, and he did. It's on you if he doesn't know you need to go easier.

Sometimes it is prudent to have a talk with sensei about the situation. It is his problem and sensei should see what is going on. In the old days we would have a closed door session with such people and the senior yudansha, or huge brown belt, then would rack the guy with no mercy. Closed door means keep the students out so they will not see such things as retribution.

Having been away form Judo for years it is hard to judge if such a strategy would work now days. In my younger days we practiced Judo as a recreation and Martial Art, and would compete now and then. If you are confident then a 240-pound brute should be easy sport, especially with a few snappy arm bars or chokes during tachiwaza.

...If you are confident then a 240-pound brute should be easy sport, especially with a few snappy arm bars or chokes during tachiwaza.

More advanced guys at my gym can throw him around easily despite weight disadvantages, I watched it happen tonight. Although the lightweight blackbelt did get bloodied up a bit (or perhaps it was the heavyweights blood, I couldn't tell)

I wish that a 240- pound brute was easy sport for me, but my judo just isn't there yet, if it ever will be. To this brutes credit he does apparently have an extensive wrestling background and competed in some tournaments abroad as well as in college. Guys with some background in MA and a complex seem to know just enough to hurt you and are smart enough to not get banned from the club. For instance this heavyweight has enough control to not beat the hell out of our blind judoka. Why can't he show the same level of empathy and control that he showed to blind practitioners to those who are not visually impaired?

The answer to the previous question is that he doesn't care about the health of his uke, he only cares about the health of blind judoka because if he goes aggro on them then he knows that he will hear from coach. That's my theory anyway.

This is why I dislike people like him, that and the fact that i have seen too many people get injured by brutes, and now I've finally had it happen to me.

To clarify I am all about Randori and intense training, just so long as your not injuring your partner. I am not saying that people should live in a bubble and practice kata, just that when people practice they should demonstrate a certain level of self control.

You guys on BS know this already and that's why this forum is awesome. That and for all the man gossip threads about gong saos and such that keep me entertained throughout the day.

If you have the choice it is always safer and more fun to fight guys in your weight class

Our club is small with only one other guy in my class, so I have to fight the bigger guys. Lucky for me they are decent players and dont have to rely on thier weight advantage to beat me

Fighting bigger guys is important if you train with SD in mind, but FWIW, I think you should go with your instincts and avoid the behemoth. If he asks why tell him the truth, ie you dont want to get broken by him

In you guys' experience do people like that just do it to be assholes or are they just actually unaware that they're going too hard? Seems to me they just don't know they're going too hard for you and they should take it easier unless they're just shitheads. At my gym the instructors are pretty good at telling people to take it easy if they see it's too much on someone.

Also my gym works hard to make the environment overall "familyish", everyone is cool there if anyone busts an attitude they're checked pretty quickly or asked to leave. It's one thing to be competitive and give it your all but it's another to just be a shithead.

In you guys' experience do people like that just do it to be assholes or are they just actually unaware that they're going too hard?

Halfway between. They know they are going too hard, they just can't seem to curb their desire to win all the time. It seems to take a while to drill into their heads that randori isn't about winning, but rather about learning.

When I have someone who looks ready to kill me I just act timid, ask them to go easy on me, I'm old, blah blah blah and it seems to usually work. The other thing is never attack unless I am feeling safe with my uke. That is actually where the vast majority of my injuries have always occurred, is during an attack.

"We often joke -- and we really wish it were a joke -- that you will only encounter two basic problems with your 'self-defense' training.
1) That it doesn't work
2) That it does work"
-Animal MacYoung

OH, and as for the "midlife crisis" comment. Totally true. Part of the problem is the level of disrespect that is out there coming from the young folks and the erroneous belief that we need to physically dominate someone to gain their respect. After all, Batman does it.

"We often joke -- and we really wish it were a joke -- that you will only encounter two basic problems with your 'self-defense' training.
1) That it doesn't work
2) That it does work"
-Animal MacYoung